The Good Life | Valentina Expressions

Caffe’ “Al Volo”

26 Apr 2024 17 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ExpressoCoffee, #ExpressoDemitasse, #HowToServeExpresso, #ItalianCustoms, cappuccino, coffee, Italy, latte, Travel

“Coffee On The Fly” is how my Italian title translates. Coffee on the fly in Italy is a common expression all Italians use when they order a cup of expresso in a coffee shop, no fuss, no addition of strange flavours, no cup sizes to remember, no special requests, just a straight expresso coffee served in a white or brown demitasse.

I am enjoying the hand-painted demitasse sets I purchased from a friend who imports Italian ceramics and other beautifully hand-painted products made by skilled artists in Italy. https://www.gioialuce.com
The cups displayed in my photo are exclusively made for expresso, short and to the point. One might serve a spoonful of ice cream in it, but that’s all, those cups are made only for a fast coffee.
Who cares for modern linear design when I can enjoy a traditional Renaissance pattern, a cluster of lemon design from Amalfi or a floral pattern from Sicily?

Sometime ago, a friend asked me why in Italy everyone takes coffee standing up at the counter and in a hurry instead of sitting down. She told me that Americans like to “nurse” their coffee. What a strange expression, I replied. Why do Americans drink a liquid that is sick and needs to be nursed? I didn’t understand it until I started to pay attention to the coffee habits in America.
Coffee is an electrifying and invigorating drink, we drink it to get a boost of energy when we wake up in the morning or anytime we feel sluggish. Italians drink coffee while it is hot and the size of a demitasse is the right size of energy we need.
Italians drink expresso standing up at the counter because they are not tourists in their country, they have places to go and things to do; sitting at a table would raise the price of the coffee, it would take a person to serve it and clean the table afterwards.

The difference between Italian expresso and American coffee lies in the size of the cup and the toasting of the beans. Expresso is toasted dark and strong, a few drops in a cup are enough to shoot you to the Moon. American coffee is toasted lightly, it is brewed watery like tea but it doesn’t mean it is light, in fact, the caffeine content is higher than expresso. Another difference is that no one in Italy walks in the streets holding a cup of coffee in the hand, not done, only gelato to lick, with possible funny and not-so-funny comments from passers-by.

A nice alternative to expresso is cappuccino, served in a squatted large cup with expresso and warm milk foaming at the top for a great effect. A must-know if you visit Italy: Italians don’t drink cappuccino after 10:00 am and get appalled to see tourists drinking it at all hours of the day even after they eat pizza. As the day progresses, Italians also progress into drinking wines for lunch and dinner, aperitifs for mid-afternoon and cordial or bubbly wines for the evening. By the way, the word cappuccino comes from the Cappuccini Monks Order who wear a simple brown cloak with a long, pointed hood hanging down the back (cappuccio).

Caffe’ macchiato, meaning an expresso stained with 2 drops of warm milk served again in a demitasse is another way to drink an expresso.

The biggest surprise is when I say that most of us Italians drink expresso with “ombretta” in the morning.

Ombretta literally means a small shadow and it refers to a short shot of a liqueur that accompanies the expresso in the morning. It is mostly a custom of the northern Italians living in cold regions. Drinking a ombretta in the morning is not to get drunk at the start of the day, but only to stay warm. In the photo, my ombretta is a sip of Limoncello liqueur.
These are the only few ways to order coffee in Italy. You get it bitter from the barista, you add your own sugar or nothing.

How to stir sugar into an expresso coffee is another story. It is often said: “When in Rome, do like the Romans”. In any foreign country, it is ideal to blend in as much as possible and not to attract attention to oneself, unless your somatic treats will give you away. Anyway, learning some customs of the country you want to visit will put you in an advanced position. If you are up to that, then, coffee will be stirred clockwise and not the opposite.

I must say that Italy is a modern controversial country, but the traditions are ancient and will stay that way. Ciao,
Valentina

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel.
Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Sliced Through Time

23 Mar 2024 14 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #AfternoonDreaming, #Dreaming, #OldFilms, #SpanishArchitecture, #TravelThroughTimes

Billie Holidays’ unmistakable voice came to me soft and caressing, it was so sweet and lazy on a warm March afternoon. I stepped forward to understand where Billie’s soft voice, which I have always adored, came from. The buildings around me, clearly Spanish in style, typical of California, had a straw yellow tone, perhaps also due to the reflection of the afternoon sun on the walls. A beautiful peace reigned between the courtyards of those buildings, I didn’t hear people’s voices or other noises and I didn’t even know if those courtyards were living quarters of upscale shops, I just knew I was attracted to enter. I sat on the staircase to enjoy those notes of the past and then everything changed around me. It was intense, it was magic.

Suddenly, my surroundings were in a different America, I was projected into another era. I saw women and men dressed in 1940s style, their voices were far away, some women smoked with long cigarette holders in their hands and men greeted respectfully people they knew by gently lifting off their hats. Everyone seemed friendly about enjoying life. Some sat at tables in restaurants and cafes, others walked relaxed. Those two-tone colour shoes…I couldn’t avoid admiring them, so fashionable.

I felt an inner peace and was in no hurry to go anywhere else, I wanted to stay there in that yellowed time like an old film. A brown bird sat perched on the stair railing and looked at me. He had eyes that looked human, he looked at me as if he wanted to say: “Everything will be fine.” I stayed there for a while basking and watching the bird.

The loud screaming of a child playing interrupted my journey into the past. The 1940s were certainly not the best years in the world, but today’s reality is increasingly cruel and grey. I woke up reluctantly and continued my tour as a tourist in a city that, despite not being my city, I have lived it for many years.

Nearby, the Stanford cinema was showing a period film with Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger, it was the best thing to do to keep dreaming on that warm March afternoon.

How common is it for you to slice through time and be projected into an unfamiliar territory? It happens to me often, perhaps I have the need to escape reality or perhaps I don’t belong in these times. Ciao,
Valentina

Valentine’s Day

14 Feb 2024 7 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ColorOrange, #ColorRed, #REDAVoyageIntoColors, Love, Love Day, Valentine's Day

I am not much of a Valentine’s Day person, but I can say a few things:
I hope you have always someone with whom to share everything.
I wish you to do the things you love ardently at least once and not the right thing.
I wish you to read a memorable book.
I wish you to be on the most limpid blue-green water of your favourite beach, wet with salt and sand, kissed by the sun.
I hope you marvel at the beauty of nature and that you plant your favourite flowers or food.
I hope you have created lasting memories to return to when things are not so well.
I hope you paint your idea of beauty.
I hope your mind hosts food memories:
the earthy aroma of a glass of wine drank with happy friends, or in a foreign country;
a succulent steak cooked in a hot brick oven;
an icecream fallen on the ground;
a fruit picked and eaten right under the tree;
a kiss between bites.

Let Love be the guiding light that always accompanies us with wisdom and compassion.

Swimming upstream, as I usually do, I choose orange as the colour for today. It feels safer, peaceful and not so invasive as the red.

Happy Valentine’s Day. Ciao,
Valentina

Copyright © 2024 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

I have been absent

11 Feb 2024 11 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #2024ChineseLunarYear, #ArtByValentinaCirasola, #HandbagsByValentinaExpressionsEtsy, #KMVT15TVShow, #ValentinaDesignUniverseShows, blog, books, valentina, writing

I am sitting in front of this box, the computer monitor, after nine months of being absent and it feels like a stranger is looking at me. Nine months ago, my life took a turn I didn’t like, it was as if a heavy beam of a construction home hit me on the head really hard and knocked me unconscious, thus I decided to disappear for a while for my own sanity.
On another note, it’s good to stay away from electromagnetism anyway and detox for a while.

Meanwhile, I was as active as ever with design work, TV shows, travelling, painting walls in my home and having a life outside the social platforms. I remember when the internet didn’t exist and friends knocked on my door without any appointment or picked up the telephone to talk at all hours of day and night without worrying about what virtual friends on Facebook were doing every second of their lives.

I returned to be closer to the world of art, the only thing that makes my soul sing. I visited the exhibitions shown in all the museums in my area and I even started to paint again, but this time I left out all the rules I had learned in art classes, I want to have a very loose hand to express myself freely and do just what I like.

I paint geometric and abstract nature with any medium except oil. Fabric is one material I feel confident to paint with as well. Basically, I create images using fabrics, but I don’t make quilts.

I have picked up the habit of making handbags. Many people sit in front of the TV and after a while, either fall asleep, eat mindlessly, or zap the remote control with an infinite boredom. If I sit in front of the TV my hands must be constantly doing something, sending a signal to my brain that I am creating. By doing this, ideas flow as a river to do more extravagant handbags, I want to make them all, but time seems to slip away on its own. I sell them on Etsy and privately. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ValentinaExpressions

The TV station, KMVT15, where I had produced a lot of shows before the psycho pandemic, finally lifted all the bans applied for three years and I returned to produce my shows under the same label: Valentina Design Universe. In January, my guest was a money coach who talked about money and harmony.

In February my guests, two chiropractor doctors, talked about how to live a life without medications.

The March show will be about Charcuterie and the small pleasures of life.

Saturn governs this year. It is considered a very hard planet due to the strong energy that it emanates.
The 2024 Chinese Lunar Year is about the dragon, another very strong symbol of power and commotion.
I hope both together will not create a lot of damage to humanity, already afflicted with wars, psycho pandemics, economic crises, government idiots, geo-engineered food and stupid believers hung up on virtual reality.

It’s good to be back in the blogosphere. Ciao.
Valentina

An Easter Speciality

09 Apr 2023 7 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BenedettoSpeciality, #EasterFood, #EasterSpeciality, #ItalianEasterFood, #ItalianHolidaysDinners

Today talking with my high school friends in Italy about what kind of food they are preparing for Easter, I realized that for a long time, I missed preparing a typical speciality from my native Puglia. It’s called “Il Benedetto”. It is a dish full of fresh sheep ricotta on a bed of arugula or cooked spinach, boiled eggs, slices of soppressata sausage, pecorino cheese, and slices of oranges. The plate is placed in the centre of the dining table, accompanied by fried artichokes, olives and fresh raw fava beans. Some people put everything on one plate as shown in the second photo.

Before eating Il Benedetto, the food receives the benediction with a branch from an olive tree dipped in holy water. Basically, it is an appetizer served an hour or two before dinner.

(Photo by La Cucina Pugliese)

(Photo by my sister Cristina)

Italian holiday dinners are nothing like you have seen before. Italian dinners have no end. Italians know when dinner starts, but don’t know when they will get up and call it finished. It seems this speciality would be enough for dinner but not for the Italians who love to dine at leisure.

Dinner is never served with all food together on one plate or the guests helping each other by passing this and that until their plates are full of ingredients. Italian people eat dinner one course at a time. Between one dish and another, they talk politics, love, family, soccer game, money and all kind of interesting subjects, smoke, drink wines, or get up to dance to make space in the stomach for the next dish, with a time-lapse of 20-30 minutes between each course. Often a holiday dinner last 5-7 hours.
Women sit at the table as well, but they are the ones to prepare and serve. I helped my mom in the kitchen when I lived with my parents, however, I never understood the reason why men couldn’t get up and help.

For years I couldn’t prepare any Italian speciality here in America as the ingredients were not available in any market, now there is nothing I can’t find and I will prepare Il Benedetto from now on. I wish all of you a peaceful Easter Day. Ciao.
Valentina

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Illusions On The Walls

03 Mar 2023 9 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #FantasyMurals, #FrenchCountyVillage, #JohnPughMurals, #StanfordShoppingCtr, #StreetMurals

I love walking and unexpectedly finding murals on the walls. They are imaginative, colorful and put a smile on the viewers. This mural is located in Stanford. a fancy shopping center European style, where many stores display expensive merchandise. This long wall has been covered with a view of a French country town, very quaint and peaceful. Have you noticed the cat?
Famous muralist John Pugh painted this scene.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

In the photo below, the balcony rail and the open door are real, everything is a make believe.

The plant on the ground and the hanging pots are real, nothing else is.

In this photo only the tree branch is real.

Murals are nothing new, human beings have had the need to describe their environment since the beginning of time, sometimes adding fantasy to their paintings and sometimes seeing the reality as it is. In any case, murals transport me out of reality into a different world for a few minutes.
This is my entry for Dan Antion’s Thursday Door Challenge. Ciao,

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Playful Carnevale

19 Feb 2023 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #CarnevaleMasks, #ChiacchiereVenetianCookies, #CommediaDellArte, #Goldoni, #ItalianCarnevale, #VeniceCarnevale

The Christian calendar marks Carnevale as the period between the Epiphany and the first day of Lent, this being the day when all the fatty food must end until Easter Day. In Austria and Bavaria, Carnevale called Fashing starts the day of the Epiphany. In the history of time, Carnevale has been a magic time of divertissement, debauchery, costume parties, eating, unrestrained sex, and a time during which life challenges were momentarily forgotten. We know how much we need to forget the times of oppression we are living in today!

(click on each photo to view it larger).

During this time, it is a must to wear frivolous masks to disguise one’s identity, as every prank is permitted and accepted, one doesn’t want to be recognized the next day for the illicit deeds done.

Romans celebrated their Gods with Carnevale festivities. The use of masks concealed their licentious behaviors and their social status, allowing old and young, rich and poor, nobles, servants, slaves and prostitutes to mingle and dance together until dawn. They also celebrated Bacchus, the God of wines, with rivers of wines and long hours of dances in the streets of Rome, hence the name Bacchanalia. The gladiators entertained the public and the king of the festivities, elected by the people for only the duration of the feasts, organized public games to which everybody could participate.

(All photos taken by Gioia Co. Italian Products and Imports)

Italy is one of the country in Europe most famous for the celebration of Carnevale and Venice is the fulcrum. Venice is a magical and mysterious town on its own, but at Carnevale the town returns back in time with all the extravagant and colorful costumes people wear and breath-taking masks to cover their faces. Strolling in costumes through the narrow streets of a foggy Venice in February is like walking in the 16th century. Everybody is disguised, people laughing, chatting, a glass of wine here, a dance there and unruly behavior comes out.

Goldoni’s comedies, a famous Venetian theatre writer of the 1700s and the Commedia Dell’Arte, based on improvisation on stage, made possible all the mockery and ridicule of public figures and government officials through masks and costumes. Plays of Commedia dell’Arte are still fascinating and alive in the arts of Italian theatre.

Here in the States, Carnevale is well known in New Orleans, no other state celebrates it, but in my circle of people, there is a large communities of Italian culture lovers who honor Carnevale as one of the many excuses to celebrate life. The other day I said that dressing up is fun, cheerful and erases all the spider webs from the brain. For one or two days we can forget all the troubles.

For the group, I made the friable “chiacchiere” traditional Venetian cookies, it translates in chit-chat as they seem to make The sound of people chit-chatting. The recipe is below.

Chiacchiere Carnevale Cookies

Double all the ingredients by one to make any quantity you want.

1 egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon anice, limoncello, orange liqueur, or anything citrus liqueur,
grated lemon skin, 1 pinch of salt, 5.oz. flour + flour to work the dough on the wood board later, 1 tablespoon of baking powder.
Mix everything, make a ball, rest dough 30 min in plastic wrap on the counter.
Roll the dough flat about 1/4”, cut strips in the bias, then form any shapes you like, even a mask shape. I knotted my chiacchiere. Fry in vegetable oil or bake at 375 F. for 12-15 minutes. Add powder sugar as soon as the chiacchiere come out of the fryer or the oven.

Enjoy the video in Venice Carnevale 2023. h ttps://youtu.be/HVhNni3MjjQ

Off I go to another maskerade party. Happy Mardi Gras. Ciao,

Valentina
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My Thanksgiving Table is Ready

23 Nov 2022 10 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BaroqueThanksgiving, #HolidayDecorating, #InteriorDesign, #ThanksgivingColors, #ThanksgivingTable, SilverandGoldColors

Visiting stores in the month of November feels a little bit like taking a ride on the carousel. Stores are filled with an exceptional amount of merchandise, all very shiny and glittery. All decorating styles are there for all tastes and pockets, Sottish, English, American Country, Urban, Modern, Abstract, French, Evocative of the past, and so on.
I limit the amount of time I want to spend in stores at this time, otherwise I will be dumbfounded in a few hours. Luckily for me, I shop with my eyes. If I don’t see immediately the item I am looking for, or that special something that catches my eyes, it means it’s not there and leave.
(Click on each picture to view it larger)

This year for Thanksgiving I am leaning towards a bit of Baroque style. As a table runner, I will use an Indian shantung fabric remanence from a jacket I made. It’s multicolors, shining with gold filaments. The tablecloth is a damask from Venice, Italy and the napkins is a fabric printed with paisleys.

I have always been attracted by gold and silver together, like the sun and the moon sometimes shine together in the sky. The energy they bring together is fantastic.

The chargers are not plates but mats heavily beaded and the napkin holders are made by me. My table décor often doesn’t match on purpose as I generally don’t match things in my daily life, except the shoes, I do match those. I love the intricate ideas that come in my mind when I decorate and find many ways to surprise people.

The two reindeers were too cute to pass up. They look almost like a McKenzie Childs’s design but they are not. Now, I need food, people and bubbles.

This is a day to really be thankful for our blessings. I wish all of you a great Thanksgiving. Ciao,
Valentina

I Created A Paradise Of Citrus

16 Nov 2022 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #HealthyJuices, #HomeMadeJuices, #OrangeBasedBeautyProducts, #OrangeBenefits, #OrangeMixedJuices

Many years ago, when I moved to California, the backyard of the house I purchased was burned by the sun, arid, no one needle of grass in site and nothing was growing. The climate was sunny and mild, I saw the potential for reproducing a Mediterranean garden with a small orchard, as I was used to. My vision was clear, the canvas was blank and I started to create.

I planted first citrus trees, lemons, blood and navel oranges, then apples, apricots, berries and a two avocado trees that have not produced anything. Then, I started to create vignettes of relaxation and beauty with garden furniture, fun décor, lighting and accessories, but I left a certain roughness to it, I didn’t want a manicured garden. These are the blood oranges growing over the arbor that bless me with health all year, except August and September. I really have made a small paradise in my backyard.

It was necessary to learn how to process all the fruit I was hoping to get and certainly, I did get a bounty from nature. I only used water, good organic fertilizer and my singing. Yes, plants feel and hear the voice of the person who loves them, the more I sing to them, the happier they get and produce more. I know they love the operatic voices of il Volo, Cecilia Bartoli, Maria Callas, Pavarotti, Caruso, and most of the sopranos/tenors I listen to. The result is a florid, thriving garden I can eat off of it.

Now, I make citrus juices mixed with other fruit or vegetable for the morning breakfast. I add nothing else to the mixture, no water, no sugar, no additives or coagulants. My juicer discards fibers and peels, what I get is pure juice.
This is oranges and raw beets.

This is a juice made with oranges, apricots and lemons.

Here I have a delicious glass of oranges and carrots.

Here there is mixture of red bell peppers, oranges and apples.
All these juices lend themselves to become an alcoholic spritzer made with a bit of bubbles or mineral water for a non-alcoholic refreshing drink.

Aside from juices, I use my oranges and lemons as house cleaning products, facial masks and facial treatment products. I don’t have to buy anything the market proposes any more and I avoid chemicals, or other unpronounceable stuff that enter our body when we use commercial made products. I talk about what to do with citrus in my booklet Naked Lemons, the book Facebook blocks every time I advertise it, as the word “naked” suggests pornography to their stupid algorithms.

I hope you will try some of these, there is nothing to it, it takes very little time to make a glass loaded with pleasure. Ciao.
Valentina
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Copyright © 2022 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Delicious Discoveries For The Holidays

01 Oct 2022 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #AncestralWines, #BottleFermentedWines, #EuropeanWines, #HolidaysWines, #Homemadewine

The holidays are approaching, it’s that time of the year when I search for specialty food and drinks.
I read about wines fermented in the bottle instead of barrels and got interested. I found Lunaria, a fizzy wine made in Italy with an ancestral method of fermentation in the bottle.

I know a friend who is still using ancient filters belonging to his grandfather to make the same style of wine.

Almost any grape is good to produce wine fermented in the bottle. Grape gets pressed as usual to turn it into must. As soon as the must starts to ferment, meaning the sugar reduces and alcohol increases, the wine must gets filtered and bottled. By doing this, the natural fermentation stops and that small amount of sugar left in the liquid starts a new fermentation right in the bottle, giving a unique flavor to the final product. The residue at the bottom of the bottle looks like small crystals and tastes sweet.

Baresana, Menavacca, Primus, Sweet White Muscat are the grapes used in the region of Puglia to make this style of wine.

The next bottle is Cremant de Borgogne. I learned about it while I was watching one of my favorite shows “Escape To The Chateau” produced by Dick and Angel Strawbridge, a British couple who bought a dilapidated Chateau in France and moved the entire family to start their new lives in France.

They are different styles of wines and both are excellent choices. The producers don’t pay me a cent to say these nice things, it is my choice, my taste and my preference over some other wines.
What food do I pair these wines with? Nuts and cheeses, savory aperitifs, caviar, and any celebratory food. Any time is a good time to pop a cork. Ciao,
Valentina
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